The Day Deathwing Came, Legends, Blue Posts

The Day Deathwing Came SpoilerThe Day that Deathwing Came is one of the ridiculously awesome quest introduced to the game with Cataclysm, I had a LOT of requests to post this video over the last month and it gives you a pretty good idea of why you should be excited about a few things in Cataclysm.

Legends - Part one: The Gathering
It's been a while since the last time we saw a huge machinima project (the last one was probably Tales of the Past). "Legends" is a machinima created by Lucas Cedergren, the first part is 1 hour long (split in 5 Youtube Videos) and is the result of months of work in cooperation with a lot of people from the machinima scene, see the description below for more information!

Background
After centuries of conflict the world of Azeroth has found, at long last, sense of peace and well being. New generations rise and new allegiances are forged in a brave and exciting new world with hope of an even brighter tomorrow - but in these times there are those who would seek to crush hope and extinguish the light. Minds dark and twisted, focused only on spreading the darkness that clings to their very being. Unaware of this rising darkness Azeroth continues, in blissful ignorance, to enjoy new-found freedoms, unknowingly walking towards their demise. But there are remnants of wars past. Heroes of old... Some would say... Legends. Brave warriors who selflessly sacrificed themselves to protect their people. But that was long ago, things have changed and the heroes of old have been scattered and forgotten, un-needed, until now. Maybe if they could be found in time.. Maybe the course of this dark destruction could be averted.

All hope now rests on the shoulders of two young, fresh faced Warriors, as they rush to save Azeroth and reunite these heroes so that they can once more restore peace to the world.

Quick Note From Lucas "Lima" Cedergren
Most movies are made in Modelviewer. But this is recorded 90% in-game. We've had the help of some of the best voice actors in the machinima community, additional sound design by Glenn Xaydin Govan and special effects by Johan Vågstedt I think we have created something to be proud of. I very much hope that all of the viewers will enjoy it! This is the first part of three. We are currently writing the script for the second one and we are sure that it won't take 4 years to complete it this time. This movie is more of a prologue for the upcoming 2 that will contain a lot more action and delve deeper into the plot. If you want more information about the movie and our upcoming ones please visit www.cedergren-productions.com.

Guild Leveling and Rewards - Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Dark Phoenix Mount Reward
The guild rewards you guys are seeing in game are not hooked up yet. Guild rewards have 3 requirements that must be be met before you can use them. First and foremost, they must be unlocked via a guild achievement. Let's just say, that for example, you need to complete the new guild achievement "We are Legendary" in order to unlock the Dark Phoenix. That achievement requires the guild to gain access to all 6 legendary weapons currently available in the game. (note that all guild achievements start on Cataclysm launch, so anything you have now will not matter, it must be done with your guild after launch)

So, let's say that your guild get's this achievement and thereby unlocks the Dark Phoenix on the guild vendor. At this point anyone in the guild can see the item on the vendor, but they will need a specific amount of guild faction to be able to purchase it. In this case, let's say exalted. Now, once you have the guild faction, you can purchase the item for its gold price. (prices will vary based on the reward)

I am using the Dark Phoenix and the We are Legendary guild achievement as examples here but you should get the idea. Don't worry, we wont be handing out all the goodies so easily. =)

Guild Heirlooms
The heirlooms on the guild vendor are just like other heirlooms in the game except that these must be unlocked via a guild achievement and you must have the required guild faction to purchase them. After that, you can use them just like normal heirloom items.

We did have thoughts of making these items guild bound a long time ago but we came to the conclusion that that was just too limiting of a design. Imagine leaving a guild and losing all the guild rewards that you worked so hard to get? Taking items away from players is something that we would like to avoid at all costs. (Source)

Guild Leveling
Guild experience can be earned in any of four ways:

1. Completing quests / daily quests that reward experience
2. Killing any dungeon / raid boss with a guild group/raid
3. Winning a rated battleground with a guild group/raid
4. Earning a guild achievement (these are nice, fat chunks of experience so they feel great when you get em)

A guild group/raid is 4/5, 8/10, 12/15 or 20/25 members of the group/raid being guild members. (Source)

Guild Reputation
Any quest that rewards experience to you will also reward guild experience. The amount of guild reputation earned is based on the amount of guild experience rewarded. Note that daily quests will also reward guild experience.

All guild reputation is gained as a factor of guild experience. (Source)

[...] As I mentioned in the other post, anything that grants guild xp will also grant guild facton. So that means that winning a rated BG with your guild or completing specific guild achievments will reward faction as well as completing quests or killing instance bosses. (Source)

Guilds Q&A (Source)1.) No matter how hard you work at your own guild rep, even if you farm it like a psyco, can a GM just "Deny" you of the guild rep rewards.
1. GM's have no control over the guild rewards. As long as your guild has unlocked the item via the achievement and you have the required guild rep, you can purchase the item.

2.) Are all the standard guild control functions staying the same? (GBank control, inv and remove settings, ect)
2. Yes, most all of the guild control functions are remaining the same. We are however introducing a new ui for guild ranks that will allow you much more control.

3.) I understand there is going to be an exp cap per day, but as per reward and ability, will this at least be the determining factor that a 10 and 25 guild are not equals. (its an mmo ppl, go make friends)
3. The experience cap is in place to help balance out the experience curve between large and small guilds. We tuned the cap to be be high enough that in most cases, you will never hit it. (when I say most, I mean average size guilds which make up the majority of wow's guilds)

Guild Ranks system overhaul
The entire guild rank system in the process of being overhauled. The new interface for this will be much better and allow you to actually move ranks up and down as well as copy an existing ranks permissions into a new one.

Sorry for the inconvenience on this right now but it will be fixed up in an upcoming build. (Source)

Guild UI
A lot of the UI for the guild advancement system is in progress. The "at war" box will be removed from the guild faction at some point in the future. (Source)

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Beta Servers - Characters stuck in Moonglade
We've investigated this issue and believe we've determined a fix to be released in the near future. I'm unable to say for sure in what build the fix will appear, or when that build will be released.

Guild Leveling Speed
We are looking for as much feedback as we can get on the guild advancement leveling speed and experience gain. Please use this thread to report any feedback you have. As much info as you can give on the size of the guild, active members and what you were doing to earn the guild experience would be extremely helpful.

We know that not all of the ways to earn guild experience are active yet (rated bg's for example), but they will be soon. The feedback on how it feels with just quests / bosses now would still be useful.

We will be tuning the values to get where we need to be until they feel right. Your input on this is greatly appreciated. =)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Hammer of the Righteous
I think if Hammer of the Righteous went back to its old design of hitting 3 targets, you'd see the forums swarming with paladins in a few weeks demanding some way to AE, such as... removing the cooldown on Consecrate again. There is no way to change the Prot paladin rotation up without changing some core abilities, and we are committed to changing the Prot rotation up.

We have some room to experiment with the proc rates for Grand Crusader, but remember that the more often it procs, the weaker it has to hit. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)Elemental Changes
In the next beta build (or the one after that), you will see two important changes to Elemental shaman. First, you will use Lightning Shield (for damage!) instead of Water Shield. Second, you will want to use Earthquake for AE over Fire Nova. These changes, especially the former, will provide Elemental shaman with a bit of an upgrade in the rotation over what you're used to in LK.

I don't want to oversell it, because players have a tendency to imagine herds of glittering ponies when left to their own imaginations, but it should be a fun change. (Source)

"That achievement requires the guild to gain access to all 6 legendary weapons currently available in the game. (note that all guild achievements start on Cataclysm launch, so anything you have now will not matter, it must be done with your guild after launch)"
Lemme get this straight: This means you'll have to farm MC/Ulduar/BT etc again to get this guild achievement? Hmm... interesting.

I really hope they change this. Not that I mind going back and doing the old instances, it's just my guild already has 1 thunderfury (at least), 1 shadowmourne (almost got our second), a sulfuras and Val'anyr.

Seems kinda lame we have to get another one of each.

My name is Cernunnos, I will love you like no other, I have died a thousand deaths, each time I died I thought of you.

some of these achievements not being retroactive like Cernunnos said is stupid. also it seems that larger guilds are still being favored as well since it will be easier to do guild achievements with more people available

So basically we should get someone to 1 less shard and fragment needed, as well as the pieces for Thunderfury and Sulfuas pre cata launch, then farm the hell out of BT and Sunwell. Awesome! Wait no that's not.